Marion Barry

“The laws in this city are clearly racist. All laws are racist. The law of gravity is racist.”

“I like boxing.”

“I promise you a police car on every sidewalk.”

“Why should blacks feel elated about seeing men walk on the moon when millions of poor blacks and whites don't have enough money to buy food to eat on earth?”

“The brave men who died in Vietnam, more than 100% of which were black, were the ultimate sacrifice.”

“First, it was not a strip bar, it was an erotic club. And second, what can I say? I'm a night owl.”

“I am making this trip to Africa because Washington is an international city, just like Tokyo, Nigeria or Israel. As mayor, I am an international symbol. Can you deny that to Africa?”

“White folks may let you in their country clubs to play golf, invite you out to dinner, take you out to play tennis, but when it comes to dividing up the money, that's a whole 'nother story.”

“People have criticised me because my security detail is larger than the president's. But you must ask yourself: are there more people who want to kill me than who want to kill the president? I can assure you there are.”

“Love is very fleeting with me. I don't know why.”

“What dragged me down was not being mayor - it was insecurity, the need to be accepted by everyone, the pleasure syndrome. That's what brought me down.”

“My greatest work comes in the community.”

“Who can better help our city recover than someone who himself has gone through recovery?”

“When you know more, you can do more.”

“Everybody in life has something that they get knocked down on. The object lesson here is not that you get knocked down - it is that you get up.”

“Washington, D.C., had never seen my style of politics.”

“This is not a sham, not a game. This is the real stuff.”

“I love serving people. I love helping people empower themselves.”

“I have to admit I didn't do as much as I should have back when I was mayor, but now we're getting it done. It's not where you've been but where you're going.”

“I read a funny story about how the Republicans freed the slaves. The Republicans are the ones who created slavery by law in the 1600's. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves and he was not a Republican.”